GoingUnderground

I think this has just killed off any small plans I had to get pro-box. 40 locos is a low amount for me and the thought of having 4 controllers with the same locos on seems a bit pointless to me. Much rather have ECoS Radio with its 100 locos per handset.

To use ECoSControl Radio (ECR) you must have an ECoS or a Maerklin CS1. The ECR will work with nothing else as it needs its own special receiver which will only fit an ECoS or CS1.

I am planning to ask Father Christmas for a Pro-Box and so this discussion is very interesting.

 

My understanding is that you can have 40 locos on the layout to control but how many decoders is it possible to have? Is that a maximum of 40? My problem is that with the standard Dynamis I have reached 40 but cannot program anymore chips?

 

Sorry but my knowledge of DCC is very limited so apologise if I have not fully understood!

 

 

There are three issues here:

1. Q. How many loco addresses (i.e. loco decoders) can the Dynamis hold?

A. 9999, but you can only have 'instant' access to 40 of them, see page 9 of the Dynamis manual http://www.Bachmann....-user-guide.pdf. The 40 are called the "Roster" some systems call this limit the "Stack". If one of the ones that you want is not in the Roster then you have to take one out of the Roster to make space for the one that you want to add. If you're hitting the 40 limit then you need to remove one from the Roster, see page 13 of the Dynamis manual. The Dynamis assumes that any decoder that you want to programme will automatically be added to the Roster, that's why you're hitting the limit. To add another loco to the database of up to 9999 locos you must delete one from the roster. It will stay in the database but drop off the Roster list letting you add a new one to both the Roster and the database. The manual isn't very clear on how you delete a loco from the roster but leave it on the database, and how you would delete it altogether from the database. EDIT Have deleted my errors, sorry for the confusion.

 

2. Q. How many locos with decoders installed can you have on the layout at once and ready to move?

A. It all depends on the capacity of your power supply and how many locos are in motion.

 

All decoders consume power even if the loco is sitting still with its lights and sound turned off, and this tends to be very small and is not usually a problem. However a loco starting from rest will take much more power than one at rest and one climbing a gradient will take even more.

 

Once you start locos moving, the capacity of your power supply becomes much more important than how many locos you can have instant access to in your controller. Sound locos take a bit more power than the non-sound versions. Additionally, larger motors, as used in the larger gauges will tend to take more power than the motors used in the smaller gauges. If you have a number of locos in motion can you keep an eye on any that are about to come to grief and stop them in time? Also if you have carriage lighting that will also take power from the track, as will your Accessory decoders.

 

Hence the limitation tends to be set by your power supply, what and how many locos you have running at any one time, what else is drawing power from the base station, and how many locos you can control at once.

 

If you do run out of power, then you have to divide up the track into power districts. Say you had a double track tail-chaser, then you'd make the inner track one district and the outer track the other power district. You'd feed one power district from your base station and the other from a power booster which you'd have to connect to your base station in some way, see the base station and booster instructions. Or you could just buy a more powerful base station, but then you start to get quite large currents flowing which can be bad news if there is a derailment or you accidentally cause a short circuit.

 

You could also supply the power to your accessory decoders and hence to your point motors from an independent power supply, but you would still have to leave the accessory decoders connected to the track outout from the main controller or they wouldn 't receive the DCC signals. I think most accessory decoders can be connected to use either the track power or an independent power supply. Make sure that you follow the accessory decoders instructions very carefully if you do use an independent power supply as leaving the cross links between the DCC signal inputs and the power inputs on the accessory decoder when using independent power may not be a good idea.

 

3. Q. How many accessory decoders can you control with Dynamis?

A. You can control up to 25 accessory decoders each with four addresses (outputs) = a total of 100 points (Page 15 of the Dynamis manual). I can't see anything in the Pro Box manual (see Ron's link) that changes that limit.

 

Hope this helps.

Hi Keith,

Bachmann have had the Pro Box manual on their website for some time now.

Here it is....

 

http://www.Bachmann....robox_guide.pdf

 

Ron,

 

Well I missed the link somewhere on the Bachmann site. As I said, I stand corrected, the Dynamis handsets will synchronise and you have 40 locos between all Dynamis handsets. Apologies if I mislead anyone.

 

You still thinking of going Colour ECoS & TouchCab? When I called SWD to order some items for collection from their stand at Warley they said that they had asked ESU if they could have a Colour ECoS just to demo on the stand.

As I understand it, this is not necessary with the Pro Box.

The Pro Box copies/synchronizes them to the other handsets for you.

If I've got it right, when adding another handset, the Pro Box loads the library/roster to it.

If there are different rosters on the different handsets, the Pro Box will ask you which one you wish to synchronize to all others. Merging rosters is not possible.

Any subsequent adjustments made to the stored settings on one handset will be synchronized to all others.

I think the total number of locos is still 40 across the system.....

I was going on what I thought I had seen others say in the past about using extra handsets, but haven't got a Pro Box, and can't find a copy of the Pro Box manual on-line so you maybe right. Perhaps I was confusing it with what people have said about using more than 1 handset with a Dynamis setup without a Pro Box, I think someone on here has tried it and it worked, bit again I may be wrong.

Time is on my side - Rolling Stones

as the title of this suggests, what does buying the Bachmann Dynamis Pro box do to the DCC system i currently have?

 

the main questions that i have, and wondered if the wide knowledge of RMweb would be able to answer are:

 

1, what is the max number of locos on which Dynamis can hold and the max number that dynamis pro can hold?

I believe it's 40 per handset active at any one time, but you can choose those 40 from up to 9999. I don't think the Pro Box changes that. But it does allow you to add 3 more handsets for additional users, and up to 4 more IR receiver heads which should reduce loss of signal problems as with more IR receivers round your layout you are more likely to be in contact with one of them. I believe that each handset is independent so you would need each loco to be set up on each handset.

 

2, programming track? A: does it now work? the Dynamis (that i can tell doesn't really make a great deal of difference between adding to main track or adding to a programming track

and B: how does this work and is it just me not operating it correctly? and C: will the Pro make it work

I believe that the Pro Box has a separate Programming Track Output.

 

When programming, the current to the programming track is limited to less than the normal main track power so if you have wired up a decoder incorrectly it reduces the chances of the decoder going up in smoke as the base station should detect the wiring fault and report an error before any damage is done. On low power systems not having a programming track is less of a problem, but on higher powered systems it is always better to use the programming track simply because of its lower power output.

 

You can make your programming track a completely separate piece of track, or have it as part of your layout. If it is part of your layout then it must be totally isolated, both rails, from the rest of the layout. Many people, myself included, use a siding with insulated rail joiners on both rails. When not programming the programming track receives normal track power and works just like any other part of the layout.

 

3, reading addresses, can it do it, and what benefit will that do to me?

Yes. When you programme a CV using Dynamis it sends the command to the decoder and the loco moves slghtly so that you know that it has responded to the instruction. But there is no way that you know for certain that it has been reprogrammed. If you then read back the CV you can then see exactly what value the decoder has in that CV.

 

This is especially useful for CV29 where up to 8 items are controlled where you can read the CV and work out what's turned on and what's not.

 

4, cost, is it worth it? no really have Bachmann promised something that they can't provide?

Apart from the lack of a PC interface, which was dropped from the original Spec, the Pro Box does what it says on the tin. Only you know if the extra facilities it adds are worth it to you.

 

5, is the pro box (or even the standard Dynamis) compatible with the ESU control systems (this being asked due to the product being made by them)

AFAIK, all Dynamis kit is compatible with ESU - if you look on the Bachmann web site you'll see that their accessory decoder even has the ESU logo on it (it's the blue box on the left side of the decoder with "ESU" on it.) http://www.dynamisdc...ts1.php?lang=en

 

As the Pro Box has an ECoSLink connector, you should be able to connect anything from the ESU range that uses that method to connect to the Base Station. But before buying anything that uses the EcoSLink port it might be sensible to check first with either Bachmann or ESU that it will work with Pro Box.

 

The Pro Box will eventually allow you to connect a Dynamis system to the ECoS to give you an additional throttle on an ECoS system, via the ECoSLink port. I believe the Pro Box even comes with the necessary cable, see http://www.esu.eu/en.../expansibility/ where ESU make specific reference to the Pro Box as part of the ECoS family. This is shown under the colour ECoS 50200 but applies equally to the monochrome ECoS 50000. However that is not possible currently as ESU have still to release an upgrade to the ECoS Firmware so that it recognises the Pro Box. At the moment ESU have not given any indication when this will be, but I expect it will happen once they release their Navigator system which is their "economy" (at least compared to an ECoS) control system and is similar to Dynamis.

 

The handset shown in the system diagram in this last link is the ECoSControl Radio which shares a casing and display screen with the Dynamis handset. You cannot use a Dynamis handset directly with an ECoS, only via a Pro Box after ESU have issued the necessary Firmware update to the ECoS. You cannot use an ECoSControl Radio handset with a Dynamis system.

 

Hope this helps.

Heroin - Lou Reed

Hate to point this out, but Heroine is a female Hero, not the drug Heroin. Yeah I know i'm a sad old spoilsport g*t.

Hero and Heroine - Strawbs

This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us - Sparks

Out of Time - Chris Farlowe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNyAzuB1-rE from 1966. Ah, 1966! Bring back pirate Radio London http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/index.html Wonderful Radio London Big L. Sorry off topic. I'll get my coat......

Time - Pink Floyd

Sister Morphine - Marianne Faithfull

 

 

Remember a Day - Pink Floyd

Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones

It's All Over Now - Rolling Stones

Forever in Blue Jeans - Neil Diamond sorry Duplicate

 

Forever In Your Hands - All that Remains